Start with what the BMC ADO17 is: a 4-door saloon / 2-door coupe utility (Australia) with 1798 , built from 1964 to 1975, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Sir Alec Issigonis.
The story
BMC ADO17 is the model code used by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) for a range of front wheel drive cars in the European 'D' market-segment of larger family cars, manufactured from September 1964 to 1975. The car was initially sold under the Austin marque as the Austin 1800, then by Morris as the Morris 1800, and by Wolseley as the Wolseley 18/85.
Later, it was marketed with a 2.2 L engine as the Austin 2200, Morris 2200 and Wolseley Six. Informally, because of the car's exceptional width and overall appearance, these cars became widely known by the nickname ‘Landcrab’. The 1800 was voted European Car of the Year for 1965.
What is underneath
The engine is 1798 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 106 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the British Motor Corporation line-up the BMC ADO17 has a clear place: it replaced the Austin Cambridge / Morris Oxford VI / Wolseley 16/60; it handed the line to the Princess; the factory was Longbridge, Birmingham. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Plymouth Barracuda, the Porsche 911, the Pontiac GTO. Nearby in the British Motor Corporation catalogue sit the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the BMC ADO17 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.